Home Depot shoppers favor repairs, hybrids and budget-minded projects

The summer shopper walking into The Home Depot was more likely to need a fix than a fantasy makeover. HIRI said maintenance and repair were the top reason for home-improvement activity in 2025, and a growing share of homeowners were mixing DIY work with contractor help instead of choosing one path exclusively.

That shift sat inside a market that still had room to grow, even as money felt tighter. HIRI said consumer confidence was down more than 18% year over year, University of Michigan sentiment fell more than 28% from December 2024 to December 2025, and nearly 80% of homeowners were planning future maintenance projects. At the same time, HIRI said home improvement spending remained near record levels, a sign that people were still spending, just more carefully.

For store teams, the selling job changed with the customer. The best questions were the ones that got past the wish list and into the reason for the trip: Is this a failed part, a comfort upgrade, a safety fix, or a project that has to last one more season? That answer shaped the recommendation, whether the associate steered the customer to a quick replacement, a staged repair, or a job that needed pro help from the start.

That practical mindset also changed the pace at the service desk and the Pro Desk. Pricing, availability and clear project planning mattered because cautious buyers did not want to come back twice for the same repair. HIRI’s November 2025 readiness-to-spend research said tighter budgets, rising remodeling costs and stagnated incomes were pushing many homeowners toward smaller DIY projects instead of large high-end remodels, which meant repair parts, maintenance supplies and split-the-job-in-stages conversations were likelier to move than luxury upgrades.

The broader industry outlook matched that pattern. Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies projected only 1.2% year-over-year growth in renovation and repair spending by the second quarter of 2026, or about $516 billion, and said sluggish housing starts and economic uncertainty were headwinds. Home Depot’s own numbers showed why that matters on the sales floor: fiscal 2025 sales reached $164.7 billion, comparable sales rose 0.3% companywide and 0.5% in the U.S., and Ted Decker said the chain still saw opportunity in an approximately $1.1 trillion total addressable market. With 37 new stores opened over the past three years and about 80 more planned by 2027, the company is betting that knowledgeable associates and on-shelf availability will win the business when customers are buying what they need, not what they dreamed about.